Shuttle-threading means.



H. L. 'LITOHFIELD.

SHUTTLE THREADING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 14, 1910.

979,865., Patented Dec. 27, 1910.

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HERBERT L. LITCHFIELD, 0F SOUTHBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHUTTLE-THREADING MEANS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 27., 1910.

Application filed January 14, 1910. Serial No. 538,104.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT L. LITOH- FIELD, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Southbridge, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Shuttle-Threading Means, of which the following description, n connection with the accompanying drawmg, is a specification, like characters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention relates to loom shuttles of the type wherein the thread is delivered through atubular eye the outer end of which 1s located at the side of the shuttle, the thread being led from the bobbin recess into the tubular eye through an aperture made in the wall thereof which communicates with an upright recess made in the shuttle wood. In shuttles of this type the threading is often effected by sucking in the thread through the eye, but this is very objectionable on the score of health, and in some States laws have been passed prohibiting such use of shuttles. This sucking in of the thread is also objectionable when the yarn or thread is dyed, as in some instances the dye used is poisonous and sooner or later affects the health of the weavers.

My present invention has for its object the production of improved and novel means for threading shuttles provided with tubular eyes, whereby the objections above stated are entirely overcome, and the construction of the device greatly simplified.

It has been proposed heretofore to provide the shuttle with a tubular eye curved in the direction of its length, and with such eye a threading member is used consisting of a spirally coiled spring wire. The thread is given a turn or two about the coiled wire and then the leading end of the latter is inserted in the inner end of the curved eye and pushed downward through it, pulling the thread along through the eye. The great objection to this arrangement lies in the very practical difficulty of boring a longitudinally curved hole in the shuttle wood to receive the eye, and if such a hole can be made in thereafter inserting and firmly securing the eye therein.

In my present invention the shuttle is provided with a straight, tubular eye, the bottom of the bore or thread passage thereof being upwardly beveled or inclined to the inner end of the thread inlet or aperture. Preferably the eye is screw-threaded exter nally, not only so that it can be screwed into the straight hole drilled in the shuttle wood, but also so that the eye can be adjusted rotatively to vary the drag or tension upon the eye. In connection with the eye so constructed I use a threader comprising a thin, resilient and flexible shank having a thread-engaging hook or barb at its free end.

To thread the shuttle the threader is inserted in the eye at the outer end thereof and as it is pushed inward its leading end engages the beveled part of the thread passage and the shank is thereby deflected and turned to pass readily out of the thread-inlet or aperture of the eye, and finally rises high enough for the weaver to take a turn or two of the thread around the shank below the hook or barb. The threader is now drawn backward through and out of the eye, pulling the thread with it and the shuttle is threaded.

The novel features of my invention will be fully described in the subjoined specification and particularly pointed out in the following claims.

Figure l is a perspective view, partly broken out, of the thread-delivering end of a shuttle provided with an eye embodying a part of my present invention; Fig. 2 is a transverse section on the line 2-2, Fig. 1, showing the novel structure of the deliveryeye, and the threader therein, to illustrate the deflection of the leading end of the threader by the beveled part of the threadpassage in the eye; Fig. 3 is a similar view but showing a slightly different form of delivery-eye.

Referring to Fig. l the shuttle body 1, bobbin recess 2, vertical recess or socket 3 leading downward into the shuttle wood from the top of the shuttle adjacent the bobbin recess and separated therefrom by the transverse wall 4 having an upright slot 5 for the passage of the thread, and the longitudinal groove 6 in the thread-deliverlng side of the shuttle, may be and are all of substantially well known construction. The shuttle wood is bored transversely, at 7, Fig. 2, to intersect the recess 3 and to receive the tubular delivery-eye, and in Figs. 1 and 2 this eye is shown as a straight body portion 8, externally threaded at 9 to screw into the hole 7, the body being nicked at 10 to be engaged by a screwdriver or other suitable tool. The body 8 is drilled longitudinally for a portion of its length to form a thread- 7 socket 3 and above the top of the shuttle, as v passage 11 having the outer end or mouth 12 preferably rounded, Fig. 2, to present a smooth surface for the thread T to draw across. A part of the body is cut ofi at 13, and provided with a thread-inlet or aperture 14, and the bottom of the passage 11 is in 1883 but in said patent, and as heretofore constructed, such eyes have been made with the thread inlet as a hole intersecting the longitudinal bore or thread-passage at right angles.

Herein the bevel or incline 15 at the inner end of the passage, leading upward from the bottom thereof to the edge of the inlet .14 farthest from the thread-delivery side-wall of the shuttle, is made for a specific purpose, to wit: to cooperate with and guide the leading end of the threader, now to be described.

Referring to Fig. 2 the threader which I prefer to use comprises a ring-like handle or finger-hold 16, an elongated flexible and resilient shank 17 conveniently made of relatively fine spring wire and normally slightly curved longitudinally, and a hook or barb 18 on the free end of the shank. When the free end of the threader shank is inserted in the eye and pushed inward, see full lines Fig. 2, the hook or barb strikes the incline 15 and is thereby guided or directed uplwardly in an easy manner through the thread-inlet 14, andas the threader is pushed shown in dotted lines. The weaver now takes one or more turns of the thread around the shank below the hook or barb, and pulls the threader backward and out of the eye, thereby drawing the thread into the inlet 14 and through the passage 11, threading the shuttle. Were it not for the guide surface 15 the leading end of the threader would be stopped at the closed inner end of the thread-passage, as will be manifest from an inspection of the ordinary type of Thompson eye, and the threader could not be passed through the inlet 14 and upward into posi' tion to engage the thread.

The shuttle threading operation is very quickly and easily accomplished by the structure herein shown, and it will also be apparent that the eye can be adjusted rotatively to a certain extent to vary the tension on the thread without interfering with the the inletis at the bottom of the recess or o well 3 in the shuttle body, and the guide surface at the inner end of the thread-passage is provided to direct the leading end of a flexible'threader up through the threadinlet of the eye and upward through the recess or well 3 into position to be conveniently brought into temporary engagement with the thread.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A hand-threading loom-shuttle having an upright recess in its body communicating with the bobbin recess, and a transverse delivery-eye fixed in the shuttle-body and I having a straight, tubular thread-passage extended thereinto from its outer end and having an inlet at its inner end opening into the bottom of such upright recess, the inner end of the thread-passage being inclined upwardly from the bottom of the passage to the edge of said inlet farthest from the open end of said passage, whereby a guide surface for the leading end of afiexible threader is provided, to direct the same upward through the inlet and into the recess in the shuttle-body when the threader is passed into the thread-passage to thread the shuttle. I

2. As a new article of manufacture, a thread delivery-eye for hand-threading loom-shuttles, consisting of a cylindrical, elongated body having a straight, tubular thread-passage extended thereinto from one end and having an inlet near its other end communicating with the passage, the inner end of said passage being inclined upwardly from the bottom of the thread-passage to the edge of the inlet farthest from the open end of such passage, for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HERBERT L. LITCHFIELD.

Witnesses WILLIAM P. PLI r'roN, WILLIAM G. REED. 

